Feb 15, 2022
Conservatives around the country are protesting what they claim is
the teaching of a formerly obscure legal theory - Critical Race
Theory - to America’s schoolchildren and undergraduates. While of
course CRT isn’t in the formal second or even eleventh grade
curriculum, reporter Molly Minta of Mississippi Today and Open
Campus asked herself: what are they afraid of? So she took her
readers inside the state’s only dedicated
Critical Race Theory class to find out what it would really be like
to study CRT. She found a challenging curriculum focused on
debate and discussion of the complex academic theory which explores
how race influences American society. Minta also introduced readers
to Brittany Murphree, a white, conservative law student who says
she’s now rethinking some of her previously held beliefs and
perceptions. Minta shared insights building trust with sources who
might be uneasy talking about controversial topics and covering
academic freedom issues and digging into the special interest
groups who are pushing for CRT bans both in Mississippi and
nationwide. Plus, she shares tips for data mining, including
tracking how postsecondary institutions are spending their federal
COVID-19 relief fund.